Regenerative Farm Manager

Regenerative Farm Manager, Higher Farm

A pioneering farm aiming to scale successional agroforestry methods, growing field-scale veg in between forest rows for our condiment brand and veg box.

• Higher Farm, Somerset
• Accommodation available
• £40-50k/annum

We are a 50 acre regenerative forest farm, currently in year 2 of transitioning from pasture into food forests. We aim to farm by mimicking forest ecosystems, planting trees and introducing biodiversity in scaled systems to grow food for our condiments and our veg box. Our main growing systems involve planting highly diverse tree rows in 3-6M spaced alleys, in between which we do field-scale vegetables and market gardening.

We are seeking a farm manager to lead our farm and its team, to grow the business and reach our ambitious targets over the next 5 years. A huge opportunity for someone to apply creative and business acumen to a new business, with blank canvasses and pioneering spirit, whilst also keeping hands close to the soil. In the working week we expect roughly 2 days on managerial and administrative work and 3 days of work on the land.

Farm overview

The farm operates two routes to market:

Firstly our products, currently mainly growing beetroot which we use in our ketchup, with plans to include mustard seed rotation for a mustard in 2026.

Secondly we have an online shop with our veg and veg boxes. For this we use our tree rows for fruit trees, berries, perennial salads and perennial vegetables, and we use the alleys for field scale veg. We also have poly tunnels and space for market gardening for higher value crops.

We currently only farm commercially on 8 acres, however aim to expand over the 50 acres in the years to come.

Responsibilities:

• Responsible for the P/L of the farm, working with budgets and targets from the directors
• Managing all operations of the farm
• Manage our farm team
• Get involved on the farm regularly when not doing administrative/managerial duties
• Manage order fulfilment to routes to market
• Manage grants, defra and all administrative elements
• Manage purchasing and maintenance of equipment and machinery

Specifications:

• 10 + years experience in natural/organic/regenerative farm management
• Experience in field scale farming and tractor operation
• Experience in managing orders, fulfilment and routes to market
• Some experience and understanding in agroforestry/syntropics/forest farming is needed although we have experts who can also train you.